Opening Reception Open Vault: Independent Film Week is a sponsored by ACTRA Manitoba four day celebration of the quality and diverse independent film and video work that has been created in Manitoba over the past 35 years. Please join us for a Pre-Screening Reception at PLATFORM* With a DVD release, seven feature film screenings, to kick off Open Vault: Independent Film Week. and four curated shorts programs featuring over Thursday NOV 27 40 historic short films and videos culled from the 6 – 7pm libraries of the Winnipeg Film Group and Video Pool, Open Vault is designed to present Manitobans with an exciting offering of high-quality, home-grown Closing Reception and Illusion of Normalcy talent that has emerged from this province DVD Release Party over the past 35 years. Please join us for the Closing Reception and Illusion of Normalcy DVD Release Party at PLATFORM* to close Open Vault: Independent Film Week. Sunday NOV 30 6 – 7pm *PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts 121-100 Arthur Street, across from the Cinematheque DESIGN: PAUL KIM Imagine the Winnipeg landscape In the early days, Cinematheque was the only place will always be its first home. It is where filmmakers without our beloved Cinematheque. in Winnipeg to see these films, because it was — first truly experience the interconnection between Reflecting on this enables one to and has become once again — the only cinema their work and the audience — sometimes fulfilling house with the technical capacity to screen both all their hopes and aspirations, and sometimes, think about the contribution our 35 mm and 16 mm films. Today, in the digital age, unfortunately, providing utter devastation and spur- cinema has had within the com- we often speak of content and DVDs and indeed Cin- ring soul-searching. Audiences and critics have munity. Twenty-five years ago, ematheque not only screens films, but also videos their opinions, and not all indulge us. Regardless the Winnipeg Film Group reflected and other newer formats, but the capacity to screen of the outcome, however, this step is of vital im- upon the landscape at the time – films is still an important one. Not all work is new, portance to the careers of filmmakers. We are and often it is just as important to reflect on histori- forced to ask ourselves why we do what we do Winnipeg did not have a movie cal works as it is to access new ones. Imagine need- and — hopefully — we become stronger technic ally, theatre to see the very best of ing a technological interface to read the plays of we become better storytellers, and we become world film, nor did it have a screen- Shakespeare. While access to copies that are more much stronger filmmakers for these experiences. ing venue that was accessible for broadly viewable is important, there is a difference between a work and a copy. Looking at a picture of As integral as Cinematheque is to provide access local filmmakers to present their Picasso’s Guernica is an important thing from the to the very best of world cinema to the community, works to the community. perspective of access to ideas and an understanding it plays as important a role to the development of of history, but looking at it in its original form and in Manitoba filmmakers locally. The audience is in- In Canada, the general community does not have the context in which it was intended to be present- tegral to this progress, and absolutely necessary. easy access to see the work of Canadian film- ed is an irreplaceable experience. Wide access to Cinematheque is an interface between the creators makers, and responding to this core problem with- copies is important, but a copy will never replace of cinema and the community, and this is an impor- in Winnipeg was one of Cinematheque’s key objec- the original. Something intended to be screened tant distinction from being a place where movies tives. It may seem like a given today, but the reality in the dark in a cinema house, will be a different are merely consumed. For our 25th of the 25 special is that the vision of the Cinematheque was a daring thing if viewed on a television or computer screen. events we are holding in 2008 to celebrate Cinema- one to begin with and was one that was built upon theque’s silver anniversary year, we celebrate the the Winnipeg Film Group’s core vision: we dare Manitoba film has always been at home at Cinema- history of Manitoba film as it is vitally interconnected to believe that the work of Canadian filmmakers is theque. Before the work of local filmmakers were to our much-loved cinema house. Enjoy. valuable and important and we dare to believe that exported out, as it were, to achieve attention and the community has the right to see this work. acclaim elsewhere, Cinematheque has always and -Winnipeg Film Group Bordertown Café by Norma Bailey 1993 | 100:00 | comedy/drama Thursday NOV 27 7:00pm Marlene is the owner of a nostalgic cafe on the Norma Bailey grew up in Gimli, Manitoba and merous awards including Geminis, Blizzards, the border of Canada and the U.S.A. Filled with graduated from the University of Manitoba’s School New York American Film and Television Award, the quirky and charming characters, life at the of Architecture in the early 70’s. After practicing for Los Angeles Lillian Gish Award, and she was a re- cafe is exciting, entertaining and sometimes only a year she packed her bags and headed east cipient of the YWCA Woman of the Year Award and chaotic. The envy of his friends because of his with a mad filmmaker from Montréal. While working the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for significant contribu- eccentric lifestyle, Marlene’s seventeen-year- as a caterer and helping out on other people’s films, tion to Canadian Culture. When her first indepen- old son, Jimmy dreams of a life behind a white she began working on her own ideas, and in 1979 dent feature film, Bordertown Café, was released picket fence. His mother’s attachment to the she made her first short film,The Performer, which in 1993, Norma became the first Manitoba woman past and her reluctance to move on, severe- won a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Festival. filmmaker to have completed an independent dra- ly strains their relationship. Jimmy’s wishes matic feature film; to this day, she remains the only come true when his father remarries, and asks In 1980 Norma returned to Manitoba and created woman in this category. Jimmy to join him in his new life. The stabil- the award-winning television drama series Daugh­ ity that Jimmy has been yearning for is sud- ters Of The Country. She has since produced and denly at his fingertips. Jimmy feels inexplica- directed many documentaries and movies and has bly torn. Marlene, devastated with the news, adapted the works of David Adams Richards, Mar- finally finds herself reaching out to Jimmy. garet Atwood, and Alice Munroe. She has won nu- 4 FEATURE FILMS INerTia by Sean Garrity 2001 | 92:00 | romance/comedy Friday NOV 28 9:00pm Restlessness, doubt, desire, and regret are get Laura back. He is unaware that Laura and made a number of documentaries and short films, the main characters in writer-director Sean Bruce slept together when Joseph and Laura including Middle, which won awards at film festi- Garrity’s INerTia, his challenging and comi- first started seeing each other. Bruce, who re- vals in Toronto and Vancouver; How Much for a cal debut feature film. INerTia examines the cently married Yumi in an effort to leave his Half Kilo?, which won the Best Film Award at the complicated romantic inter-relations of four pleasure-seeking lifestyle behind, now finds Calgary Independent Film Festival; and Buenos urban 20-somethings as they stumble into himself attracted to Joseph’s nineteen-year- Aires Souvenir, which was an Official Selection at awkward infidelity and unrequited love in old cousin, Alex. Alex, on the other hand, is the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival. His first feature search of something more. obsessed with Joseph. In this anti-romance film,INerTia , was awarded “Best First Feature” at drama, four people blindly follow their desires, the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival, and The lives of the four characters in this film are and only realize where it has taken them, once netted him “Best Director” at the 2001 FilmCan sidetracked by desire into deception, adultery, it’s too late. Festival. The Globe & Mail named him one of three and incest. Joseph cannot accept that Laura “Canadian Filmmakers to Watch” in 2002. Sean doesn’t want him anymore. Laura wants to Sean Garrity is a filmmaker and musician. He also works as a bass player, having appeared on explore other options. She is currently in- studied film production and theory at York Univer- half a dozen CDs, and performs live most week- fatuated with Joseph’s married friend, Bruce. sity in Toronto and the Instituto de Arte Cinema- ends in Winnipeg, where he lives. Joseph believes, with Bruce’s help, he can tografico de Avellaneda in Buenos Aires. He has FEATURE 5 FILMS Hey, Happy! by Noam Gonick 2001 | 75:00 | comedy/fantasy Friday NOV 28 11:00pm A prairie boy’s libido triggers an apocalypse. and Native arson gangs in Winnipeg to general Hey, Happy! (2001), is a midnight cult classic set in strikes, psychics and queer back-to-the-land hippie the Winnipeg rave scene on the eve of an apoca- DJ Sabu spins apocalypse when his overac- cults.